Rick Wilson

Overview

RICK is a long-time adviser to senior leaders on strategic growth, differentiation, and structuring and managing distribution relationships to drive increased competitiveness. Building customerdriven routes-to-market is a hallmark of his approach to helping companies leverage their direct and indirect channels for accelerated growth. He also researches and advises on the front lines of emerging developments in customer experience engagement, omnichannel routes-to-market, eCommerce, and new online customer-engagement technologies.

Rick is managing director of Chicago Strategy Associates, a boutique firm of senior thought leaders and advisors who bring deep insights and marketplace practices together. Rick and several leading Marketing faculty founded CSA in 1990. The firm provides hands-on consulting assistance to organizations looking to develop stronger, market-focused strategies and organizations, and Rick has 25 years of consulting, facilitation, research, and teaching experience on building market-focused organizations and stewarding high-performance distribution channels. He has examined or worked directly with leaders of manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, and services companies in over 100 business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets worldwide.

A popular speaker, Rick has delivered keynote addresses on routes-to-market and distribution strategy at public and private conferences in North America and overseas. He has taught a number of popular Marketing courses in Kellogg's full-time, part-time and executive MBA programs over the past two decades including "Distribution Channel Strategy”, “Digital Marketing and Commerce”, and "Social Media and Engagement”. Rick was a co-founder of The Kellogg Center for Global Marketing Practice, where he continues as a Visiting Scholar workingwith Kellogg faculty to advance the school's marketing knowledge and stimulate global marketing thought leadership.

His MBA graduate work was completed at Harvard Business School. His undergraduate degree in Statistics was obtained from Miami University.

Professional Experience

Managing Director, Chicago Strategy Associates, 1992-present

Vice President, Sogeti, 1985-1991

Various marketing positions, Eastman Kodak, 1980-1983

Full-Time / Evening & Weekend MBA Courses

Marketing Channel Strategies (MKTG-451-0) Marketing channels are analyzed as systems of interrelated and interdependent organizations engaged in making goods and services available for consumption by industrial, institutional and household consumers. This course emphasizes the means by which effective and efficient distribution networks (comprising manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, transportation firms and other actors in the distribution process) can be constructed. Particular attention is given to examining the behavioral dimensions of channel relations, the roles of channel members, their use of power, the conflicts that arise among them and their communication procedures. Government and other constraints on channel activities are also examined. Cases are used for illustrative and analytical purposes.